page_title: James Marion West Sr.
section_title: Personal life
hierarchical_section_title: James Marion West Sr. / Personal life
caption_attribution_description: English: Jessie Gertrude (Dudley) West
context_page_description: James Marion West Sr. was a wealthy Houston, Texas, businessman who substantially influenced the city's development during the early 20th century.
  He came to Texas as a boy from Mississippi in 1880. He grew up on a farm in Trinity County where he later built a lumber business. He married Jessie Gertrude in 1895.
  He built a business empire that included ranching, banking, lumber, oil, real estate, and newspaper publishing. He was heavily involved in politics both in Houston and at the state level. He served as an officer and board member for various banks, universities, and other business interests. He later became a publisher of the Dallas Journal and the Austin Tribune in part because of his interest in politics.
context_section_description: West was born in Waynesboro, Mississippi, on May 2, 1871 to Silas Wesley and Mattie (née Clark) West. He moved with his family to Texas at the age of nine. His family settled on land in Trinity County and began a life of subsistence farming. Times were not easy and the family struggled financially through his early years. West would leave school early at the age of 13 due to the financial stress his family endured. He would subsequently begin a career that would lead him to become a millionaire many times over by the early 20th Century.
  He married a school teacher from Josserand, Texas, named Jessie Gertrude (née Dudley) on July 3, 1895 in the Groveton Methodist Church. Together, they had two sons, James Jr. born on September 26, 1903, and Wesley, born on June 6, 1906, and a daughter Mildred.  A quiet individual who enjoyed the outdoors, ranching, and his privacy, West was a tall man of over six feet with trademark West blue eyes and dark black hair that turned gray in his later years. Shrewd, but not callous, he was modest despite his vast wealth. West was a conservative both in his business dealings and in his politics, where he was a noted Republican.
  West died on August 24, 1941, while on a business trip to Kansas City. His son Wesley was by his side when he died. He is buried in the Forest Park Cemetery in Houston.
caption: Jessie Gertrude (née Dudley) West
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